The growth in passenger volume at Macau International Airport – i.e. the number of people arriving and leaving from the facility – fell by 9 percentage points judged year-on-year in January, according to data from the airport’s operator CAM.
In January 2015, there was “passenger volume” of 430,000 people said CAM, which it added was a 3 percent expansion compared to the same month in 2014.
In a February 2014 announcement, the airport operator said “passenger traffic volume” for January 2014 had increased by 12 percent year-on-year from the year-prior period. It didn’t give an actual number of people for that month in that release.
The figures from the airport operator include visitor arrivals that pass through immigration but also transit passengers. It is likely that a number of airport arrivals that passed through immigration last month were “same day” visitors.
Among the airport arrivals clearing immigration in January 2014, a total of 34,957, or 22 percent, were recorded as “same day” visitors, indicating that after clearing customs and immigration they went on to other destinations, according to Macau’s Statistics and Census Service. The statistics bureau has not yet published the airport arrival numbers for January 2015.
Nonetheless the 78 percent of Macau International Airport arrivals in January 2014 that didn’t leave Macau the same day, are likely to include high-value tourists.
The Macao Economic Bulletin for the first quarter 2014 – a joint publication of the Macao Economic Services, the Monetary Authority of Macao and the Statistics and Census Service – indicated that overnight visitors to Macau spent per capita MOP3,691 (US$462) during the period, compared to same-day visitor spending per capita of MOP673.
